Monday

Old Faithful Geyser - Yellowstone National Park

Old Faithful is a cone geyser located in Yellowstone National Park. An eruption can shoot 3,700 to 8,400 gallons of boiling water to a height of 106–184 feet lasting from 1.5 to 5 minutes. The average height of an eruption is 145 feet. Eruptions often occur about 90 minutes apart, but this interval can range from 45 to 125 minutes on occasion. Over the years, the length of the interval has increased, which may be the result of earthquakes affecting subterranean water levels. These disruptions have made the earlier mathematical relationship inaccurate, but have in fact made Old Faithful more predictable. With an error of 10 minutes, Old Faithful will erupt 65 minutes after an eruption lasting less than 2.5 minutes or 92 minutes after an eruption lasting more than 2.5 minutes. The reliability of Old Faithful can be attributed to the fact that it is not connected to any other thermal features of the Upper Geyser Basin.

Old Faithful Geyser video.

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When Catherine and I visited Old Faithful Geyser in Yellowstone National Park we called my parents and they were able to see us live on the Old Faithful Geyser webcam run by the National Park Service.

Catherine and I walked through the Upper Geyser Basin by walking along the boardwalks and paved trails in this area. The hike is between two and four miles long depending on which trails you follow. The Upper Geyser Basin contains twenty percent of the world's geysers, the largest concentration on earth.The one square mile basin has several groups of hot springs and over 150 geysers, including Old Faithful.

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There were lots of buffalo in the Old Faithful area.

In this photo you can see buffalo and their calves and in the background you can also see the Old Faithful Inn.

A ground squirrel in the Upper Geyser Basin area.

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This is a photo of the Morning Glory Pool, a hot spring in the Upper Geyser Basin of Yellowstone National Park. It was named in the 1880s for its similarity to the morning glory flower. The pool used to be a brilliant blue color due to the bacteria in the water. Unfortunately, the Morning Glory Pool is a poster child for visitor abuse at /place>/place> place="">/place> place=""> place="">>/place> place=""> place="">> place="">>>>/place> place=""> place="">> place="">>>> place="">>>>>>>>/place> place=""> place="">> place="">>>> place="">>>>>>>> place="">>>>>>>>Yellowstone. People have through the ages thrown tons of garbage into the pool, including quite a hefty chunk of change, and picked off the alkaline scalloped borders for souvenirs. All the garbage closes up the vent hole which causes a drop in temperature. They still try to clean it out periodically, but it is permanently damaged at this point. If the garbage keeps accumulating, sooner or later it will become just a brown pool.

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